Heart murmur

What is Heart murmur?

Heart murmur causes whooshing or swishing sounds during the heartbeat cycle. Turbulent blood in or near your heart causes these sounds. Though it is not a disease, it can be a sign of underlying heart problem. In some cases, heart murmur does not need any treatment, but follow-up tests are necessary to ensure that it does not have any severe problem.

Symptoms:

A harmless heart murmur does not have any symptom and an abnormal one also does not have any noticeable signs. When doctors listen to your heart with a stethoscope, they hear the sound. There are a few symptoms we enlist here for you.

• The skin around your fingertip and lips appear blue
• Swelling or sudden weight gain
• Shortness of breath
• A chronic cough
• Enlarged liver
• Enlarged neck veins
• Poor appetite
• Chest pain
• Dizziness
• Fainting

Causes:

Since there are two types of heart murmurs – innocent and abnormal, the causes also depend on the intensity.

The causes of innocent heart murmurs:

• Physical activity or exercise
• Pregnancy
• Fever
• Not enough red blood cells
• Excessive thyroid in your body

The causes of abnormal heart murmurs:

• Holes in the heart or cardiac shunts
• Heart valve abnormalities
• Valve Calcification
• Endocarditis
• Rheumatic fever